American Puritanism

The Plymouth Colony

Two Important New England Settlements The Plymouth Colony

Flagship Mayflower arrives - 1620Leader - William BradfordSettlers known as Pilgrims and Separatists"The Mayflower Compact" provides forsocial, religious, and economic freedom,while still maintaining ties to Great Britain.

The Massachusetts Bay ColonyFlagship Arbella arrives - 1630Leader - John WinthropSettlers are mostly Puritans or Congregational Puritans"The Arbella Covenant" clearly establishesa religious and theocratic settlement,free of ties to Great Britain.

I. Basic Puritan Beliefs 1. Total Depravity - through Adam and Eve's fall,

every person is born sinful - concept of Original Sin. 2. Unconditional Election - God "saves" those he

wishes - only a few are selected for salvation elitism + concept of predestination.

3. Limited Atonement - Jesus died for the chosen only, not for everyone. elitism

4. Irresistible Grace - God's grace is freely given, it cannot be earned or denied. Grace is defined as the saving and transfiguring power of God. born again.

5. Perseverance of the "saints" - those elected by God have full power to interpret the will of God, and to live uprightly. If anyone rejects grace after feeling its power in his life, he will be going against the will of God - something impossible in Puritanism.

Additional Beliefs:

Typology: The belief that God's intentions are present in human action and in natural phenomenon. Failure to understand these intentions are human limitations. Puritans believed in cyclical or repetitive history; they use "types" - Moses prefigures Jesus, Jonah's patience is reflected in Jesus' ordeal on the cross, and Moses' journey out of Egypt is played out in the Pilgrims' crossing of the Atlantic. God's wrath and reward are also present in natural phenomena like flooding, bountiful harvest, the invasion of locusts, and the lightening striking a home.

Manifest Destiny: The concept of manifest destiny is as old as the first New England settlements. Without using the words, John Winthrop articulated the concept in his famous sermon, the Arbella Covenant (1630), when he said: " ... for we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill, the eyes of all people are upon us; ..." Winthrop exhorts his listeners to carry on God's mission and to set a shining example for the rest of the world. From this beginning, the concept has had religious, social, economic, and political consequences. The words manifest destiny were first used by editor John L. O'Sullivan in 1845.

Backsliding: The belief that "saved" believers, those with visible signs of grace, can fall into temptation and become sinners. To prevent this, believers were expected not to become smug, do constant soul-searching, be introspective, and pray constantly. Satan was particularly interested in snaring such believers.

Puritanism

Puritans

II. The Function of Puritan Writers

1. To transform a mysterious God - mysterious because he is separate from the world.

2. To make him more relevant to the universe.

3. To glorify God.

III. The Style of Puritan Writing

1. Protestant - against ornateness; reverence for the Bible.

2. Purposiveness - there was a purpose to Puritan writing ==didactic

3. Puritan writing reflected the character and scope of the reading public, which was literate and well-grounded in religion.

IV. Reasons for Puritan Literary Dominance over the Virginians 1. Puritans were basically middle class and

fairly well-educated. 2. Virginians were tradesmen and separated

from English writing. 3. Puritans were children of the covenant; this

gave them a drive and a purpose to write.

V. Forces Undermining Puritanism

1. A person's natural desire to do good works against the idea of predestination.

2. Dislike of a "closed" life. 3. Resentment of the power of the few over many. 4. Change in economic conditions - growth of fishery,

farms, etc. 5. Presence of the leaders of dissent - Anne Hutchinson,

Roger Williams. 6. The presence of the frontier - concept of self-reliance,

individualism, and optimism. 7. Change in political conditions - Massachusetts

became a Crown colony. 8. Theocracy suffered from a lack of flexibility. 9. Growth of rationality - use of the mind to know God -

less dependence on the Bible. 10. Cosmopolitanism of the new immigrants.

VI. Visible Signs of Puritan Decay 1. Visible decay of godliness. 2. Manifestations of pride - especially among the new rich. 3. Presence of "heretics" - Quakers and Anabaptists. 4. Violations of the Sabbath and swearing and sleeping during

sermons. 5. Decay in family government. 6. People full of contention - rise in lawsuits and lawyers. 7. Sins of sex and alcohol on the increase. 8. Decay in business morality - lying, laborers underpaid, etc. 9. No disposition to reform. 10. Lacking in social behavior.

VII. Some Aspects of the Puritan Legacy: each has positive and negative implications.

a. The need for moral justification for private, public, and governmental acts.

b. The Questing for Freedom - personal, political, economic, and social.

c. The Puritan work ethic. d. Elegiac verse - morbid fascination with death. e. The city upon the hill - concept of manifest

destiny.